Chainfire

First Rider's Call

Kristen Britain2003

Karigan G'ladheon is pulled back into the service of the king's magical messengers. She faces an ancient evil and the ghost of the First Rider.

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

In Green's Jungles

Gene Wolfe2000

A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.

earnest → elegiac

pace0·prose+2·bleak0

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Marlon James2019

A hunter with a supernatural sense of smell joins a group to find a missing child. The journey through mythical Africa is violent and hallucinatory.

earnest → bleak, still epic fantasy

pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

VAS

Steve Tomasula2002

A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.

earnest → clinical

pace0·prose+2·bleak0

The Mane Event

Shelly Laurenston2007

A female cop reunites with a childhood friend who is now a lion-shifter. They navigate a romantic attraction while he pursues her in New York.

earnest → playful

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

She Went All the Way

Meg Cabot2002

A screenwriter and an actor survive a helicopter crash in the Alaskan wilderness and must hike to safety while being pursued by a killer.

earnest → playful

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Mile High

Liz Tomforde2023

A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.

earnest → playful

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

All Systems Red

Martha Wells2017

A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.

earnest → wry

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

Skin Game

Jim Butcher2014

Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.

earnest → propulsive

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi2022

A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

earnest → playful

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

Beelzebub's tales to his grandson

Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950

An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.

earnest → meditative

pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

Gödel, Escher, Bach

Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

earnest → playful

pace-1·prose+2·bleak-2

Ulysses

James Joyce1914

Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

earnest → playful

pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood1985

In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.

earnest → cold

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Doomsday Book

Connie Willis1992

A student travels to 14th-century England while a virus spreads in the present. She arrives during the Black Death due to a technical error.

earnest → bleak

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Perdido Street Station

China Miéville2000

A scientist in a sprawling, industrial city agrees to help a winged refugee fly again. His research accidentally unleashes a psychic predator.

earnest → bleak

pace0·prose+2·bleak+1